dr. shailesh jain/new texas tech psych guy

Published 9:00 pm, Sunday, November 1, 2009

The idea of building a psychiatry department from scratch was one of the things that attracted Dr. Shailesh Jain to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Odessa.

"Funds were also available to do research," said Jain, the school's new regional chairman of the Department of Psychology, joking that this gives him the ability to buy a Mercedes and gas to run it.

Texas Tech this year began getting third-year medical students, and one of the clinical rotations they go through to see what they want to specialize in is psychology. Others are surgery, internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology.

He and psychologist Stephanie Caples have recruited psychiatrists from the community to serve as clinical faculty. Jain said the department is starting to accept patients. "There are a lot of new things happening, a lot of potential for growth," Jain said, adding he is looking forward to recruiting more psychiatrists, something there is a need for here.

Jain got his medical degree from the University of Calcutta, India, in 1996 and master's in public health from the University of North Texas School of Biomedical Sciences in Fort Worth. In total, he trained in Texas for 10 years and has taken to Texas Tech.

"The kind of reception I've been getting here has been exceptional," the Calcutta, India, native said.

Jain said his native city has 30 million people in an area the size of Dallas. His father has a doctorate and is director of an engineering school. "The culture is very rich in music, art ... and education," he said. Competition is stiff to get into medical school. "For every 2,000 applications, one is selected," he said. "American education is much better in terms of student-doctor ratio and resources."

Jain got interested in psychiatry because of his family history. "Psychiatry takes a different kind of personality to do. That's true of every specialty," said Jain, who provides psychiatry services to adults and children. "Psychiatry is not just a job for me. It's something I want to do 24/7. If I see one patient, probably 10 more need help."

Mental illness, across the spectrum, he said is underdiagnosed and undertreated. He hopes to be able to raise community awareness about psychiatric issues through seminars or public speaking. "I want to interact with the community. People should expect that service because we're being paid with tax money," he said.

"If we can get more awareness generated where people are able to discuss it freely, there is less stigma," Jain said.